Need a New System

Hello folks,

Since health issues have made me mostly homebound now and turned computer gaming into one of my main pastimes, I have decided it is time to purchase a new system. I have been really impressed with what I have seen of the company and the community on these forums, so I hoping some people with more knowledge than me will be willing to help me optimize my upcoming purchase.

Budget:
Looking to spend around $3000, willing to spend around $1000 more if it will make a noticeable difference in my gaming experience. Of course, if I can get by on less, that would be acceptable too.

Expectations:
I am looking to get a system that will play games at the highest settings with the ability to upgrade (particularly into a dual SLI configuration) in the future.

Usage:
I mainly play MMO's, ARPG's, and RPG's. The other main use will be for watching streamed video such as movies.

Special Needs:
-Because I can no longer sit at a desk without pain, I will be using the system from a recliner and will have a 46" television as my monitor. I would like to be able to run games at 1920x1080 resolution or higher.
-Due to not going outside much anymore, I will often be running the system for most of the day (12+ hours on a MMO is a daily average). I want to make sure that keeping the games running at max settings will not cause heat damage to the components.
-Since I can't sit in a theater anymore to watch movies, I will be using this as my way of watching new releases as they become available for streaming. Since I am missing out on the theater experience, I would like for this system to be able to handle moves in the highest definition possible.
-For sound, I will be using headphones quite a bit due to living in an apartment, but will be looking to hook it up to a 7.1 surround sound system once I find a house.
-I have a cat that sheds quite a bit and am looking for a case/cooling solution that will either be easy to clean her hairs from or that will not pick up the hairs while cooling.

Saved Ticket #: 931423

Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Digital Storm Marauder V2
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 4770K 3.50 GHz (Unlocked CPU) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth Z87 (Intel Z87 Chipset) (Features Thermal Armor and Thermal Radar)
System Memory: 16GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair Vengeance
Power Supply: 1050W Corsair Pro Silver 1050HX (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: ASUS Blu-Ray Player/DVD Writer (Play Blu-Ray and Burn DVDs) (Model: BC-12B1ST)
Storage Set 1: 1x (120GB Solid State (By: Corsair) (Model: Neutron GTX Series) (SATA 6Gbps)
Storage Set 2: 1x (1TB Seagate (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache)
Storage Set 3: - No Thanks
RAID Config: - No Thanks
RAID Card: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Graphics Card(s): 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB (Includes PhysX)
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Z
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Corsair H100i 240mm Radiator Liquid CPU Cooler (Extreme-Performance Edition)
H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected
Chassis Fans: Upgrade All Fans to Corsair Airflow Performance Edition (Up to 6 Fans)
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Airflow Control: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Stage 1: Overclock CPU 4.0GHz to 4.4GHz
Boost Graphics Card(s): - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows CD)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
Portable Gaming: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Extra Large)
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 10-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty (3 Year Labor & 1 Year Part Replacement)

Here are the areas in particular I am unsure of:
-I do not care what the computer looks like as long as it performs, so very flexible on the case.
-I have heard that MMO's get a boost from a better CPU as well as the GPU. I think the 780ti will be enough graphics card for me for now and will add another in the future if I need. Not sure at all though about the CPU and if an upgrade would help there or not.
-I have no idea how the multiple hard drives work. Do I need the SSD secondary HD and will it increase performance in a noticeable way?
-I am also pretty clueless on overclocking. I know it will speed up the processor speed, but would it be worth getting the GPU, memory, or OS overclocked as well?
-I have been using Windows 7 on my laptop and am happy with it. Will Windows 8.1 run games as well as 7 does or would I be better off staying with Windows 7 on the machine?

Sorry about the wall of text, but I am really wanting to get the best machine I can for my needs and need some help in doing that. Thank you all for taking the time to read this and any advice you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

Hi Fibro42...  Welcome to the forums.

You put together an excellent build.     My only change to it, would be to change the HDD to the Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black for another $19.   A better drive with a longer warranty.

The SSD probably won't up fps, but it does load OS real fast and makes gaming smoother as scenes refresh.  Not absolutely needed, but you won't regret it.

For dust and cat hair, your best defense is to keep the rig off the floor.  A table, file cabinet or at least a stand a foot high keeps the dust and hair that swirl around on the floor away from the intake fans.  I have 3 cats and forced hot-air heat, and very little gets inside.  It sits on  file cabinet next to my desk.

Go with Windows 8.1.   Games are already seeing its benefit, especially BF4, since only Win 8 will run the newest DirectX 11.1 and 11.2 fully. 

Your cpu is the latest and best. No worried there.  For gaming the i5-4670k is all that's needed for now, but the i7 with hyperthreading is used for most other things and games will implement it at some time.  Not a big difference, but some.

Stick with the cpu overclock.  It does help and doesn't hurt or lessen the life of the chip when done right.

For the Boost memory and graphics, i wouldn't.   Little gain and more heat.  You could go for the gpu factory oc by selecting the EVGA 780Ti Superclocked ACX card.  The overclock  does help with the 780ti, but the dual fan does dump heat into the case, where the reference card you selected exits most of the heat out the back.  A single 780ti ACX should be fine but in sli, the case could struggle with the heat.  You could ask DS to install one of the fans into the side windw to blow air onto the 780ti directly.   The 780ti ACX does give you a 10% better frame or so and works great, but heat into the case might be a concern in sli. 

Looks good and hope this helps. 

fstcvc beat my by mere seconds. 




Edited by bprat22 - 02 Mar 2014 at 7:13am

Thank you all for the suggestions. I have made the changes and have ordered my system. Can't wait to see it.